http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/Printer
<http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/Printer&cid
=1120702712642&p=1078113566627> &cid=1120702712642&p=1078113566627

 

Analysis: Israeli experts say UK didn't dig deep enough in uprooting
Islamists

  _____  


Arieh O'Sullivan, THE JERUSALEM POST 

Jul. 8, 2005

  _____  

Conforming to the restrained British character, Thursday's attacks are more
likely to lead to measured, surgical steps against terrorists rather than
bombastic crackdowns, Israeli counter-terrorism analysts say. 

A former senior IDF intelligence officer said the attack was probably linked
with al-Qaida and should serve as a catalyst for setting up a global
counter-terrorism headquarters. The terror attacks were also likely greatly
helped by sleeper cells inside Britain, one analyst said.
Maj.-Gen. (res.) Ya'acov Amidror, a former chief of IDF intelligence
assessment, said that post-9/11 - with the exception of Madrid - the West
had been able to foil attempted al-Qaida attacks.
Except for Madrid, all major al-Qaida attacks since September 11 were in
either Muslim countries or poorly functioning countries like Kenya. 

"The key to fighting this global terror network is closer cooperation
between the various security agencies in the world," Amidror told Army Radio
from London, where he was touring.
Moti Cristal, an expert in negotiation and a fellow at the Institute for
Counterterrorism at the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center, said British
security had not been caught sleeping, but rather didn't root out terror
cells with enough resolve. 

"In the past two years, they have arrested several cells. But this attack
shows they didn't go deep enough and this is mainly due to legal and
cultural restrictions. Now they will be much freer to go deeper," Cristal
predicted. 

Cristal explained that British attempts to enact antiterrorism measures
following the attacks of September 11 were "bashed by the House of Lords and
the liberal nature of the British people. Now this attack will provide a
very important backing for their government to do what they know they should
do and this is to take much more countermeasures and surgical operations
without breaking the very delicate relationship with Britain's Muslims." 

He added that the attack was not aimed at influencing certain events and had
no immediate political goal. This is in contrast with the Madrid bombings,
which were scheduled to influence Spain's national elections and pressure
the country to remove its troops from Iraq.
Cristal believed the timing was more likely linked to the announcement of
London as the host of the 2012 Olympic Games than the G8 gathering in
Scotland. 

"They did it to humiliate the British and to show the world how vulnerable
London is. It was anger, revenge and punishment for what they conceived as
British arrogance and support for the United States." 

Cristal said that retaliation by Britain was not an issue. 

"It's about preventing the next attack. The big challenge the Brits are
facing now is to use this chance to redefine the balance between human
rights and measures against terrorism," he said.
Dr. Hanan Shai, a lecturer on military and security at the Hebrew
University, said care needed to taken to prevent the terrorists from
achieving their aim of forcing the West to destroy itself by limiting
freedoms. 

"In the long run, their great achievement is to cause a blow to individual
rights. Success for them would be for modern Western society, by its own
hand, to turn into a totalitarian one," Shai said. "From attack to attack we
become less pluralistic." 

Still, he advocated a stronger stand against suicide bombers. The report
that at least one of the bombs in London was set off by a suicide bomber
should awaken the need to tackle the outdated rules of war which ignore
terrorists' violations of morality, he said. 

"In the Second World War, military leaders ran the world. In the Cold War,
it was run by diplomatic leaders. During the war on terrorism, the
intellectuals needed to take a leadership role, but they have not. Instead
of reexamining the rules of morality against non-conventional weapons, such
as suicide bombers, they are attacking [US President George W.] Bush and
[British Prime Minister Tony] Blair," Shai said.

 



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